Mumbai, India, was struck by protests after a disruption in railway services during morning rush-hour stranded thousands of office-goers. The anger got out of control, with stones pelted at officers and three vehicles, including a police van, torched.

A technical glitch in
the pantograph of a train near Thakurli station near Mumbai
halted all central rail suburban services, report Indian press.
Over 5 million people use the central railway every day to get to
work.

Angry people rushed to the rail tracks between Diva and Mumbra,
both Mumbai suburbs, bringing services to a standstill.

"It is frustrating as I am already an hour late to work. And
with the trains running packed, we are being majorly
inconvenienced," an IT professional told the Times of India.

Police tried to remove the protestors from the rails, striking
the crowd with sticks. But people started throwing stones at
officers. Some commuters managed to smash ticket machines on
railway.

“The commuters have occupied all four lines between Diva and
Mumbra since morning 8.30am. We are not able to operate the
services because of it. There was power supply problem in morning
but it is restored now,” said Mukesh Nigam, divisional
railway manager in Mumbai division.

“Following the stone pelting, locals set at least three
vehicles on fire, which made Thane police resort to lathicharge
to bring the situation in control,” a Government Railway
Police (GRP) officer told Hindustan Times.

Suburban rail network is under severe stress. Long
neglected.Drawing up plan to revamp it on top priority. Need
time to implement.Huge task